Author | Improvateur | Modern Salonnière

Category: Architecture

As a design and architecture journalist for more than two decades, I have seen quite a few built environments in my career so it takes quite a special project to get me excited. When I see something that stands out to me, I enjoy writing about it.

I would say about half of the architecture I’ve written about is modern. In fact, my only architecture book is titled Four Florida Moderns and it is a survey of how modernism founded by the great modernists made its way to Florida. Le Corbusier is one of these greats, of course, and his book Creation is a Patient Search is a wonderful read for anyone who wants to know how a visionary of his stature thought. I find the book in the Bienenstock Furniture Library at High Point and use it as inspiration for a post featuring his tiny cabin—Cabanon in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France—and his thoughts on creativity.

One of the architects in my book, Alberto Alfonso, was an avid believer in Corb’s version of modernism and I was able to witness a powerful piece of architecture he created at Streamsong near Tampa, the building so robust, it inspired a poem from the architecture’s point of view. An Italian modernist that I had the great pleasure of interviewing, Michele De Lucchi, impressed me greatly with his quite wisdom. My diary entry sharing the conversation with my readers is indeed A Conversation of Soul.

When I received the Rizzoli book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux, I was bowled over by the way architects had gracefully added modern additions to the grand neoclassical châteaux in Bordeaux so I knew I had to write about them so I could share the stunning visuals. The only question was whose literature would fit with the idea? When I found out the intrepid Stendhal had visited one of the wineries, I knew his travel writing about touring the area would be perfect (and it was); for proof take the time to read Architecture with Heart in Bordeaux!

It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way to the Chelsea Embankment. I have ambled along the street for nearly an hour identifying plaques representing the famous people who’ve lived on nearly every block. Finally, I’ve reached Roper’s…Continue reading The Nature of Noble Loyalty

In just a few hours, the modern ideal of a fairy tale wedding will take place at Windsor Castle. A trip I took to the medieval palace several years ago had a legendary feel to it that may not rival the experience of a young American woman marrying her prince charming but it was no…Continue reading The Tapestry of History

As I circle the domed space, I approach the front of the pulpit for the third time. I can’t believe how perfect it is that I am seeing the chapel at night; that I am alone. There is an eerie feel to the room that’s intensified by the few thin slices of light glancing off…Continue reading The New Face of Religious Zeal

If you find yourself strolling along the streets of Bologna near the city’s center, don’t be surprised if you turn a corner and come upon an anomaly. It will stand unapologetically as traffic whizzes by, a thumb of unruly masonry with its flanks sawed off. The amputations were necessary to make way for thoroughfares teeming…Continue reading Far from Oblivious in Bologna

In the preface to the book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux: Inside the Fine Wine Estates of France, Philippe Chaix describes discovering Bordeaux as a bewitching act: on foot, he reports, it means ambling through the city of stone and gazing into its mirror-like river. Setting off to explore the Mèdoc and Saint-Èmilion, he notes, the experience makes…Continue reading Architecture with Heart in Bordeaux

I will once again be touching literary history soon, as the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University reopened yesterday following a 16-month renovation to upgrade the 50-year-old building’s climate-control system, expand its classroom space, and restore the landmark to its original luster. The building’s architectural features—an exterior grid of granite and Vermont…Continue reading Touching Literary History

The 2016 Academy Awards are handed out this coming Sunday so I’m celebrating a film that showcases the built legacy of Henry VIII to delve back into the subject I began here on February 2nd. The movie that showcases Henry VIII’s architectural heritage so beautifully is A Man for All Seasons, which swept the Oscars in 1967…Continue reading The Built Legacy of Henry VIII

Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Looking back to the Tudor Era from this great distance, it’s easy to see how barbaric a sport jousting was. But before you feel all modern and lofty, consider America’s devotion to football, even after the discovery of its deadly occurrence of brain trauma. If you can’t imagine our country…Continue reading Renovating During the Tudor Era

How would it feel to spend your life so absorbed by crumbling architecture and disintegrating stone you could bring them vibrantly back to life with chalk and a pen? Giovanni Battista Piranesi knew, his talent for accuracy in imagining the details that flirted at the edge of the decaying world so astute he became the…Continue reading Love Among the Ruins

The 16th-century poetry that sprung from Savona made a strong impression on Thomas William Parsons when he found verses inscribed on a statue of the Madonna near the town’s lighthouse during a tour of Italy in the 19th century. He was so moved, the American poet penned the sonnet “Savona: Vespers on the Shore of the Mediterranean” that…Continue reading Poetry and Ceramics in Savona